Micro-Star International (MSI), a first-tier motherboard manufacturer, plans to continue marketing optical disc drives (ODDs) under the MSI brand, according to the company.

However, according to a previous report, the company may be looking to sell off its optical drive production facilities. MSI has an existing optical drive factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province (China), which began production in August 2003. The factory initially had three to four production lines, but capacity can be expanded to up to 18 lines.

MSI mainly produces entry-level optical drives, such as CD-ROMs, and contracts out production of DVD drives/burners to Accesstek. MSI sold more than one million own-brand optical drives last year, according to market sources.

China is the main market for MSI?s own-brand optical drives, accounting for about 80% of its total optical drive shipments, with an estimated 70,000-80,000 drives shipped monthly, the market sources indicated. MSI also bundles optical drives with own-brand PC keyboards and mice in China, accounting for about 20,000 of its monthly optical shipments there.